Improvement in the manufacture of felted fabrics



UNI-TED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ENOGH WAITE, on FRANKLIN, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELTED FABRICS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 216,986, dated July 1, 1879; application filed April 14, 1879.

.To all whom it may concern:

Be it known thatI, ENooH WAITE, of Franklin, in the county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Felted Fabrics for Garments and other Purposes, of which the following is a specification.

The'invention relates to a method and device for strengthening and ornamenting the goods to which it is applied.

Felted fabrics intended to be cut for garments are made by laying a number of slivers of wool, as it runs from the dofi'er of the carding-engine, one over another, until enough wool is laid up to make the required thickness when felted and finished. The wool so laid.

up is termed a bat. The bat is then hardened and felted to the consistency desired, and the surface finished ready for market- I introduce into the bat during the process of laying it up met allic threads or wires, either in the middle of its layers or near to either surface. These metallic threads will be made flat or square, and twisted or not, as may be found desirable, and if twisted a thread of woolen or other fiber yarn maybe twisted with them. The object of twisting the metallic thread or wire either with or Without the woolen or other fiber thread joined with it is to make the fibers of wool engage it more closely and adhere to it more firmly. These metallic threads tend to strengthen the fabric in the direction of their length, and, when placed near the outer sliver or layer of wool of the bat, will show at intervals on the surface and produce an ornamental efl'ect.

1. Strengthening felted fabrics by laying metallic threads or wires in the wool bat as it is made up of slivers from the carding-engine,

substantially as described, and'for the purpose specified.

2. The use of metallic threads in wool bats, prepared for working into fabrics for garments by hardening, fitting, and finishing,'substantially in the manner and for the purpose specified.

3. The use of metallic threads in felted fabrics for purpose of ornament, when the metallic threads are placed in the bat before the hardening.

4. As an article of manufacture, felted fab rics having metallic threads in the body of the fabric, either wholly covered by the wool or partially exposed on the surface, for the purposes specified.

ENOOH- WAITE.

Witnesses:

JABEZ A. SAWYER,

OHs. HOUGHTON. 

